U.S. WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COVID-19 CLAIMS GUIDANCE

March 20, 2020 — The health and safety of our clients, employees and their families, friends and colleagues is foremost in our minds as we monitor and respond to the coronavirus pandemic. With the increased number of COVID-19 cases around the world and the associated actions of many local and national governments, we are providing an update on Arch operations.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has quickly shifted from a story we were all following in the news to a very real threat facing employers, employees, and our families. We want to outline our approach for Workers’ Compensation (WC) claims handling.

In recent weeks, understandably, there have been inquiries regarding the COVID-19 virus, and how it may impact our customers’ Workers’ Compensation insurance policies. Each and every case is required to be determined on the merits of that case’s own distinct facts, as well as the impact of particular state and federal statutes.

At this time, we can provide the following general guidelines regarding compensable infectious disease claims:

The employee must demonstrate they were exposed to the infectious disease at work

The employer must have placed that employee at a greater risk of infection than the general public

The employee must test positive for the claimed infectious disease

Workers’ Compensation Claims Reporting and Management

Employees or managers who think they – or their colleagues – could have a COVID-19 work-related claim should report it immediately. This will allow our team of Workers’ Compensation claims experts to work with you and your employee to determine if benefits are appropriately due.

Please know, there is no change in the way claims are reported – If your claims are reported to a Third Party Administrator, that should continue. Alternatively, you may report claims directly to Arch in one of the following ways:

By Claims Portal:
Our new portal — my.archinsurance.com — allows our customers an easy way to start the claims process. From the Portal’s home page, just click the Report a Claim button in the top right of your browser and fill in the information requested. You can upload any supporting documents and receive instant confirmation when your information has been submitted.

Arch is diligently reviewing all COVID-19 claims. All of our Third Party Claims Administrators have been instructed to report all COVID-19 claims to us. These claims are being actively reviewed by our Claims Account Managers, Workers’ Compensation Directors and management.

What Arch is doing day to day to manage their claims:

We have activated our corporate pandemic plan, which is coordinated across our enterprise. The plan addresses business continuity across our companies in a proactive and pragmatic way, and our crisis incident management teams meet daily to ensure Arch can effectively respond to the pandemic without any business interruption. We seek to minimize any disruption in service to our clients, policyholders and customers. Our people remain available to assist you as in any other time.

At this time, there is no disruption to our business or the services we provide. We will continue to monitor all developments and seek to modify and adapt our response plans to best serve our customers. Please continue to report claims and communicate with us in the usual manner.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your existing contacts, and please be sure to refer to our website for the latest updates.